War Horse - Movie Overview and Wallpapers
War Horse is a film directed by Steven Spielberg and is intended for release in the United States on 28 December 2011 and in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2012. It is based on both War Horse, a children's novel set during World War I, by Michael Morpurgo, first published in the United Kingdom in 1982, and the 2007 stage adaptation of the same name.
The cast includes David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Tom Hiddleston and Peter Mullan. The film is produced by Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, and executive produced by Frank Marshall and Revel Guest.Long term Spielberg collaborators Janusz Kaminski, Michael Kahn and John Williams have all worked on the film.
Casting : After some speculation, the cast for War Horse was announced on 17 June 2010. It had been rumoured in the previous week that Eddie Redmayne had been cast in the lead part as Albert Narracott; however, relatively unknown stage actor Jeremy Irvine was chosen instead. Spielberg commented after seeing hundreds of young boys reading for the role, Irvine had come in and done a cold reading and that "his performance was very natural, very authentic." Irvine auditioned for two months, going in two or three times a week, and learned that he had the part when he was asked to read a piece of War Horse script on camera in order to check his West Country accent, and the piece of mocked-up script that he read out was Albert was telling Joey that Steven Spielberg wanted him to play the part.
The cast is European, with British, French and German actors playing British, French and German characters respectively. Robert Emms, who played the lead of Albert Narracott in the West End production of the play, was cast as David Lyons.
Casting for extras took place in Devon in late July 2010. The grand-daughter of Captain Budgett, one of the World War I veterans who had inspired Morpurgo to write the story, acted as an extra in scenes filmed in Castle Combe, and Morpurgo himself filmed a cameo role.
Prior to the start of filming, some of the actors underwent two months of intensive horse training.
